Mall craziness- Cyber Monday Alternative

The day after Thanksgiving has long been termed with the title Black Friday. I spent many years of my life working in various retail stores doing a variety of jobs such as stocking, cashiering, clothing departments, layaway, returns. You name and I did it. 

As a teen I loved working at the mall and window shopping on my break only to go back to the store when I got off to purchase. Heck, I went to the mall on my days off. I was a shop-aholic. Today you won't catch me in the vicinity of a mall unless it's to run in and run out and I can't find what I'm looking for anywhere else. 

Today I run in the opposite direction of shopping facilities from November till after the first of the year. I had more than my share of shopping craziness.

Silly retail stories:
I worked at a toy store one year. Yeah, a toy store. Talk about insanity. It ran rampant. The day after Thanksgiving people lined up outside the store all day! They trampled each other and thrashed the store. It was packed wall to wall all day. At one point the local news crew thought it would be a great idea to interview us, needless to say it the store was packed and the lines never ending. I got interviewed as I was cashiering. I suppose I was on TV later but I didn't care. I had swarms of customers and the news crew was trying to ask me questions. Insanity!

About 10 years ago I had to take a friend to the local mall close to Christmas. I was being nice but little did I know that the small mall in my town had decided to try out valet parking. I had no idea and thought I would be sly and slip into the part of the mall that was always least crowded. Unfortunately for me that was where they had set up the valet parking which I didn't know about. I swung my truck around a corner and ran over a cone. You know the glaring orange road cones. I stopped and my friend got out and put the cone back but not before mall security same rushing at us. Did I mention yet it was night? 

It was and they had no signs posted in the back of the parking lot, only the front. Mall security was pissed and called the local mall sheriff. I sent my friend to pay the valet person as I got scolded by mall security. She wouldn't let me leave because I ran over a cone which we put back and paid the valet attendant. Next thing mall sheriff shows up and treats me like I'm drunk or on drugs and does this weird 'follow the light with your eyes thing' as he shines a flashlight into my eyes which left spots in my vision afterwards. No, I wasn't drunk or on drugs so he let me go and scolded the mall security. Ha! Then he told me to go. Gladly! 

Today when I shop if I don't buy it at the local Walmart I buy it online. An author/blogger friend of mine, Megan Cyrulewski, is opening up her blog for Cyber Monday shopping! She has asked if you have something to sell contact her. If you are a shopper check out her blog that day. I sent her a special coupon discount code for two of my books, As Snow Falls and Eye of the Storm Eilida's Tragedy. But don't just check it out to get a great deal from me. There will be other fantastic deals. Click the link above to learn more :-)

Happy shopping without the mess of the crowds, news crews, bright orange cones, mall security, and mall sheriff!